Police station will be mixed blessing, some fear

Some fear influx of bright lights, noisy sirens

With a proposed police station moving into their neighborhood, White Oak residents Wednesday night expressed the need for police to promise to be "good neighbors" and minimize disruption to their quality of life.

What started as a presentation of plans for the environmentally-friendly station, proposed to be built at the intersection of Milestone Drive and New Hampshire Avenue to replace the downtown Silver Spring station, dissolved into shouted questions from residents concerned about light pollution, noisy sirens, unkempt landscaping and increased traffic.

The North White Oak Civic Association meeting was held in a crowded basement meeting room at the White Oak Library, with the roughly 125 attending anxious both over police station details and a proposed affordable housing development located on the same lot of land. Residents, many of whom supported the movement of the police station to a more centralized location in police District 3, wanted to be sure that their new neighbor would be mindful of the quality of life they had come to expect in their neighborhood.

Waldemar Berenguer, who lives in directly behind the proposed station, and Elizabeth Molloy, president of Sherbrooke Homeowners Association, said they aren't opposed to the station, but want their input heard on both development of the station and the housing development proposed in the same lot.

"We're fine with the concept. It's how do you do it, and how it's planned," Molloy said. "They keep saying, It's early. We're still in the planning stages.' And I say, That's why we're here!"

"We want our inputs put into the process," Berenguer added.

Construction is proposed to start in fall 2010, with about 18 months needed to complete the project, according to building designers. The two-story, 31,629-square-foot station will feature a public area with a community meeting room and a secure area with holding cells, investigative units, administration offices, locker rooms and a police gym.

Though the station still has to be approved by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, planners say residents can expect that the station will be moving into the White Oak site.

"The old station is undersized. It needs significant work on it. It's just not a good long-term solution to all the needs of the police," said Don Scheuerman, acting section chief of the project management section of the Division of General Services Division of Building Design and Construction. "We're going forward with the police side."

Mark Scott, office director and associate principal of Baltimore-based design firm Dewberry, presented the design with the promise that precautions were taken to ensure minimal disruption to nearby residents.

"We're trying to be as sensitive as we can to your needs while addressing the needs of the police," he told the attendees. Scott and other county officials said police would not turn on sirens until they got to a main intersection, and shift change—which would have roughly 30 police cars going in and out of the station—would occur at off-peak times.

Scott said the crowd may have been "rambunctious" but many residents were complimentary to the design after the meeting.

But some residents want more than a spoken promise that the station will act as a good neighbor.

Both Molloy and Barry Wides, president of the North White Oak Civic Association, said they wanted the county to sign a memorandum of understanding that building management would promise upkeep of the site's landscaping, minimal siren use and maximize on-site reforestation.

The station will be situated on 4.19 acres of land. The building will have a silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification and will feature an 85 percent vegetated roof and pervious pavement to reduce runoff.